A French Muslim coffee shop owner has received death threats after displaying a sign reading “Je suis Charlie” outside his London café. Adel Defilaux says a man stormed into his business, The Antishop, in Brick Lane, East London, at 9.30 yesterday morning, demanding he take the sign down.

However, Mr Defilaux remained defiant, at which point the man became aggressive and warned that anyone who supported the French magazine should die.

Mr Defilaux told the London Evening Standard: “He came in very aggressively and he told me to remove the sign. I asked him why and he said his community was offended by it and said if I didn’t remove it something bad was going to happen.

“I told him I was Muslim myself and I wanted to talk gently with him and I said people can’t kill journalists for expressing themselves.

“I calmly explained to him that what he was saying was not the reality of Islam. I thought I could calm him down, but it had the opposite effect. He went crazy.

“He said ‘I believe these people deserve to be killed and anyone supporting them deserves also to be killed’.

“I was all alone and started getting scared. He was a dangerous person. He said if I didn’t take down the sign he would smash up the shop, and then he just left.”

He added that he had received no other complaints about the sign, and had decided to display it to show solidarity with the people of France.

He also has no intention of taking it down: “I feel weak by myself with my little café trying to fight against him but I won’t let him do what he wants. I’m a Muslim like him and if I want to support Charlie Hebdo I will do it. I don’t want to let him win.”